


The Raven's Call

by paladinquen (postmodern_robot)



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Brazil cameo - blink and you'll miss, F/F, Fluff, I make up all my titles only when I have to post onto AO3, I never have any idea what my stories are called, Speed Skating, Winter Olympics, figure skating, romantic comedy (hopefully), silly silly characters, sports AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-17
Updated: 2016-05-20
Packaged: 2018-06-02 17:44:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6576229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/postmodern_robot/pseuds/paladinquen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Margaret 'Mette' Køhler just wants to finally defeat her best friend - female speed skating's world number one - Anneke de Boer. That's the only thing on her mind until she sees the renowned figure skater, Luka Bondevik, in real life for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A vision

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hanatamago2204 (Bambi_Eyes)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bambi_Eyes/gifts).



> This story came from a [Tumblr prompt](http://hetahopelesschina.tumblr.com/post/141856690972/dennor-winter-olympics-au-where-norway-is-a) that I couldn't get out of my head:  
> Dennor winter olympics AU where Norway is a renowned figure skater who performs complex and enchanting sequences to eerie yet beautiful music, and Denmark is the speed skater who happened to be checking out the rink while Norway was rehearsing late at night and instantly fell in love.
> 
> For [Hana](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Bambi_Eyes/pseuds/Hanatamago2204) who loves this pairing and if I didn't know her, I'd have never read the prompt in the first place. 
> 
> I decided to write this with the fem versions of Denmark, Norway and Netherlands because well, I keep wondering why there are so few women in Hetalia and then I don’t write them. So...  
> Nyo Denmark - Margaret Køhler / Mette to her friends and family, and to herself too because she always thought that Margaret sounded a little old.  
> Nyo Netherlands - Anneke de Boer (Mette calls her Annie, because they’ve known each other since childhood).  
> Nyo Norway - Luka Bondevik
> 
>  
> 
> Click here to listen to the [song that Luka has a routine to. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbgvgk50e94)

This time, Margaret Køhler was getting a gold medal that she would remember for a lifetime. THIS TIME, she’s going to stand above Anneke de Boer, her long-time best friend and speed-skating rival, FOR ONCE, because unlike her, Annie really didn’t need another gold. For that matter, the Netherlands itself didn’t need another speed-skating medal for heaven’s sake! Every single time the Winter Olympics rolled around, everyone else in the world suffered from a serious case of orange fatigue. But there was no denying that the Dutch were just that good at the sport and Annie was one of the best even within that group. To make things worse, Annie was in exceptional form and was still wiping the floor with the competition. They were both twenty-five, there were still more years for them to go.

Mette knocked her knuckles together as she looked at herself in the mirror. If she had to be honest, she knew she was getting too old to fantasize about sweeping victories anymore. She had to be realistic. If Mette was going to defeat Annie, it would come down to a few crucial seconds.

Mette took a deep breath. This time. Yes.

Her ancestors were vikings, and according to the family tales, her female forebears were just as adept at fighting that they were demons when they defended their hearths and homes. While her ancestors had conquered, sailed and traded across the icy seas, Annie’s were farmers strapping bone onto their shoes and using them to slide across frozen lakes. But the strategic part of her mind reminded her that this past had nothing to do with the present, so if she was going to defeat the world number one in the sport in a week’s time, she just needed to continue working for it and hope that all the stars aligned. Mette had won gold before of course, but never against her friend, so it didn't count in her mind. With this in mind, she left the warmth and revelry of the Olympic village to check out the rink that she’d be racing on. She carried her skates over her shoulder just in case she’d actually have a chance to get on the ice. It wouldn’t be exactly the same, because the figure skaters would likely be on it, as their qualifiers were starting tomorrow. Their skating conditions were different and they had a tendency to tear up the ice, but one never knew.

A raven croaked somewhere not too far away on her way to the rink. She actually liked those guys, though others could find them a nuisance or as signs of dark omens. Mette knew better, they were insanely smart, and they were symbolic of warriors and wisdom. Maybe she had spent too much time listening to stories of Odin and the old gods while on her grandfather’s knee a long time ago, but she felt a connection to his stories as much as she did to the realities of the world she lived in. Well if the raven was a warrior’s symbol, she was going to answer to it. Mette walked into the familiar surroundings and strode towards the rink itself. It was late, and she didn’t really expect anyone to still be on the ice, but she was wrong.

Strong percussion and vocals echoed through the empty stadium and Mette felt her body vibrate in response. She knew this music - it was Wardruna, a Norwegian folk band that produced enchanting music based on ancient Scandinavian runes. There was something about hearing it, just after her recent thoughts that made the hair on her skin rise and awaken the old viking blood, ever ready to conquer whatever was in her way. If this wasn’t a sign, she didn’t know what was. Striding closer to the rink, she saw...her.

Luka Bondevik didn’t need a costume to bring her audience into a different time. Dressed in her simple practice leotard, the world’s second highest ranking female figure skater was the sole master of the ice. Mette stood in awe as she saw Luka execute her sweeping and graceful movements, interspersed bursts of powerful spins and gravity-defying twists in the air. How they did it, Mette never knew, she could only make sense of the ice as a place where she could slow down time itself while the world saw her flying faster than an any human should, but figure skaters created a whole different world.

  
Mette didn’t realize that she had just been standing there staring at her, mesmerized with her, her movements and her evocation of Nordic spiritualism. Mette hadn’t realized that Luka was a creature of this world because in the graceful arch of the woman’s back as she bent backwards for the cantilever, Mette saw the waters spilling off the edge of the world amidst the shimmering dance of the northern lights, crashing into a cosmos of bright stars. In her speed, Mette saw Thor’s lightning tearing across a grey and angry sky over mad ocean waves, and when she spun in a tight circle, holding one leg behind her, Mette’s vision blurred and she saw Luka Bondevik grow into a great, pale ash tree, from which the universe extended. Beyond the fantastical illusion, Mette would occasionally catch a glimpse of that elfin face. As an athlete herself, her gaze was drawn to the slight frown between Luka’s brows and the tight clench of jaw before a jump occurred. Mette was torn between never wanting Luka to stop, or wanting to pause everything just so she could memorize and learn what all those little expressions meant.

The music abruptly stopped.

Metta was dragged back into this world almost with a blow to the head. The lights of the rink were too bright, the air too closed and the greyness of the plastic chairs around somehow seemed more unreal than the vision she just had in her mind. Only the cool touch of the iron rail under her hands felt solid, but too wide to be useful as any blade, only honest and functional, as iron was.

“Can you replay that? I didn’t like the end of that last spin.”

Mette looked up, breathing heavily. Luka was standing with her back to her, hands on her hips and calling out more instructions. But now she feels inadequate...somehow, too earthly. This isn’t the first time she’s seen Luka Bondevik, the woman is world-famous and Mette will watch the television if it happens to be showing figure skating. Luka is very easy on the eyes but seeing her in person is beyond any experience she’s ever known.

This…

She takes a few steps back, hand over her heart even though she has no idea she’s put it there. Luka is still unaware that anyone has been watching because she’s so caught up with her training, but Mette can’t hold it in any longer. She won’t interrupt Luka’s training, but she knows someone she can bother and scream this revelation to until she’s somewhat sane again.

Mette turns and runs outside in wild glee, whooping in the cold air. Nothing can stop her now, not ice, not cold, and especially not doors as she crashes through to where the Dutch team is stationed at the Olympic village.

“ANNEKE!” Mette continuously bangs on her best friend’s door desperately, smiling and waving at Annie’s teammates as they pass by. They’re used to Mette by now, just as the Danish team is used to Annie. “Anneke open up! What’s taking you so long!” _Bangbangbang_ “It’s important! I need t-”

The door opens and Mette falls in, forcing Annie to catch her. She grabs her best friend’s shoulders and starts shaking her with manic glee. “I’ve just experienced something so beautiful! I...I’m in love!”

Annie just looks at her with that resting bitch face and Mette just knows what she’s thinking.

“Come on! I’m serious! Have I ever told you I’m in love before? No!”

Then she realizes that Annie is standing in nothing but a towel, and they’re not alone.

“Oh shi-” Mette turns around to see a fairly young thing under the covers. Sex is a normal thing in the Olympic village and when her friend is in a relationship she’s as faithful as stone, but when Annie is not, she’s concerned with satisfying her needs as soon as she can, so that she may turn her mind to other more important things. Mette can’t tell if this man is another athlete or just a fan, but she knows her friend’s actual type, so she knows that this guy isn’t meant to be here beyond the night.

“Uh...Hi! Sorry for interrupting, but I really need my best friend right now!”

Annie will forgive her right? Just as how Mette always forgave Annie for winning and rubbing it in her face when she did. Mette hears the exasperated sigh as Annie throws up her arms in defeat. Her best friend walks around the room, picking up the clothes that aren’t hers, to return to the nameless man. Somehow in that process, time seems to shift again, a little closer to the mundane universe, and away from the fantastic. Mette doesn’t like it but she knows that Annie won’t keep her waiting too long.

“Sorry... “ Annie shrugged in English, with a regretful smile. “Apparently it’s…”

“Urgent.” He finished with an accent and a playful smile, Brazilian perhaps with that enviable tan? He looked a little too much like summer for this place. He laughed and took his clothes back while Mette turned to give him a bit of privacy. Once he was out the door though, Mette jumped immediately back to the subject of the vision she had just experienced.

All the while, Annie shook her head at her, calling Mette all kinds of creative things in Dutch under her breath as she stalked around her room, picked up her clothes and hastily threw them on.

“Are you listening to me Annie?! Shit!! I’ve never felt this way before, but they’re right, it’s instant and it wasn’t bells and trumpets but-”

“Where is she? I want to see her.” Annie cut in in that all-business tone of voice.

That made Mette pause. She looked at her now fully dressed friend who was absently pulling her long hair back into a ponytail and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to introduce the world number one speed skater to the world number two figure skater when she was further down on that list.

“Because frankly,” Annie continued. “I just don’t believe you, you’ve made things up before, especially when you think it’ll let you win. You always get weird before a competition Mette, and I don’t know what you’re on about-”

Oh these words meant war. “FINE! I’ll show you! Come on!” How dare she doubt Luka’s sublime existence, how DARE she? Because now Mette was a little afraid that her best friend was right, and she’d go back and find out she imagined the whole thing.

Annie took her skates with her, probably because she saw that Mette had hers and they made their way back to the rink. This time there was no music, and they passed the last of the workers and coaches leaving for home or the village. Once inside, they saw that Luka was cooling down now, doing simple laps around the ice. Mette’s breath caught, and she forgot that her best friend was standing next to her, she was just looking at that adorable, pinched expression on Luka Bondevik’s face as she was mulling over whatever she wanted to improve before her performance. Mette didn’t know how long she stood there for, wondering how lucky she was that she was put on this earth at the same time as Luka was, but then she saw an unwelcome blur of orange on the ice and a look of annoyance on Luka’s face.

Wait, what?! What was Annie doing in the rink? Shit! Her best friend was about to embarrass her somehow, she knew it. Mette rushed to put her skates on, and get on the ice herself. It was different because there was no water on this ice, which speedskaters relied on when they raced for reduced friction. Also, Luka’s twists and jumps had gouged the ice in certain spots so she had to be careful, but the rest was instinct. She raced after Annie, while Luka yelled at them, but thankfully had stopped in the middle of the rink to get out of their way.

“Sorry!” Mette yelled, coming out of the chase and getting as close to her as she dared. “It’s my friend she-” But Annie had cleared the lap around the rink, came up behind her, and pushed her towards Luka. Mette tried to keep her balance, but she caught one of the deeper gouges in the ice and stumbled. Luka caught her and guided them into a careful fall, while Annie skated far away.

“What the fuck Anneke?!” Mette yelled at her friend’s retreating back as she quickly sat up, not wanting to crush Luka Bondevik. As Annie exited the rink, she turned back and yelled.

“Grow a spine Margaret!” She slammed the rink door shut.

Well, shit. Mette had no idea whether she wanted to kiss her best friend or strangle her. Unfortunately, she could feel the icy glare radiating off the woman next to her, which somehow was worse than the ice they were sitting on.

“Uh...hehheh, hi…” She waved. “My name’s Margaret, but it’s Mette for short.”

“I know who you are.” Luka Bondevik bit out. “Speed skaters don’t compete until next week, figure skaters start tomorrow. What the hell was that?! Have you knocked your head too hard one too many times? You do know how dangerous that was right?! And, oh look you little fool, you’re bleeding.”

“I am?!” Mette couldn’t really feel any particular pain, but Luka took her hands to show Mette her bleeding and scratched knuckles. She must have cut them on the ice when she went down. “Oh that’s nothing!” she chuckled, trying to play it cool. “I’ll just go get it wrapped up, our Docs ought to get used to us waking them up for silly little accidents like this.”

Luka rolls her eyes. “We’ll have to clean it first. I know a doctor who’s probably still up. He’ll make sure nothing worse has happened to you. Come on.”

Mette couldn’t really concentrate, because Luka didn’t let go of her hands the entire way out of the rink to her seat, where she had left her clothes and other gear. She also muttered something about stupid Danish speed skaters and their atrocious accents but somehow, Mette knew that it was more out of worry than any real venom. Once out of the rink, it was clear that Annie was long gone, but if Mette didn’t use this terribly unsubtle opportunity to get to know Luka a little better, Annie wouldn’t let her live it down, so…

“Do you like performing to Wadruna? Sorry, the figure skating schedule coincides oddly with my training schedule so I haven’t really gotten a chance to see a lot of it, but I love listening to Wadruna. They take me to another place, and I listen to them when I need to get myself motivated to just...push myself a little further.”

Safe topic right? Music? It only occurs to her then, looking at the deep purple of Luka’s eyes now that she’s sitting next to her, that she had never mentioned Luka’s name during that whole gushing rant at Annie before. No wonder her friend had wanted to check. Even sitting next to her, Mette still couldn't really believe that the woman was real.

She saw those purple eyes frown and Luka’s pale cheeks turn a little red with annoyance. “I often perform with Norwegian music." She looks away to properly clean and pack her skates. “Come on, let’s get you to Matthew.”

“Eh, is he one of your Norwegian doctors? It’s okay, I can go see one of my own, they’re used to me, really!”

Luka shook her head. “They’re a little too used to you, they deserve a break. Matthew is a distant cousin of mine, but still a cousin. He also used to be a speed skater, so he’ll know exactly what to do with you and my sister is with him. Come on.”

Feeling a little better that this Matthew guy was a relative and not a boyfriend, Mette eagerly followed. Oh but what could she say to keep this conversation going? She didn’t want to leave tonight and not have an excuse to keep on talking to Luka! “You said you knew who I was?” Mette tried with a grin.

Luka rolled her eyes. “Danish speed skater. I don’t need to know much else. One of those would already be reckless enough, both together seems to override all intelligence, it seems.”

“I don’t see how what we do is any more dangerous than what you do, except you’re much prettier while you do it, and you’re more popular.” She tried the compliment, would Luka take it? No reaction as the other woman walked...past the Norwegian section of the village. Interesting. “Besides, how can you hate speed skating? I thought Norwegians liked it too, we pretty much share history on that!”

“I didn’t say I hated it. I said it attracts the reckless. The first person to strap bone onto their shoes to skid across ice at high speeds must have had some recklessness to their character, or desperate enough.”

“Brave, driven.” Mette offered, standing tall. She was about a head taller than Luka, but it was normal for figure skaters to be short. It was better for them to be short and light, just as height was an advantage in her sport because the length of your stride meant further distance and speed with less expended energy. Mette was staring again, noticing the faint dusting of pale freckles across the nose and the pensiveness in Luka’s brows.

“Brave?” Luka scoffed with a bit of a laugh. “Come on, we’re here.”

Mette takes a look around with a little surprise. “We’re seeing a Canadian doctor?” Mette wondered why not the Norwegian team. The Olympic medical teams were all highly-qualified medical professionals who volunteered to serve their teams for the competition. It didn’t really sound right to Mette, she felt they ought to be paid, but apparently medical volunteerism was a tradition. Maybe the Norwegian doctors slept early.

Luka was tapping on her phone, after a pause she said. “Right, they’re coming.”

Mette could recognize that the young woman with white-blonde hair must have been Luka’s sister. Their faces looked exactly the same, granted, this young woman’s face was still more round. Mette felt that this girl would grow up to be taller than her sister. Next to her, a young man greeted them. He was a few inches taller than Mette, and of height with Annie, though you’d never guess with his slight slouch and overly kind demeanor. He looked a little...familiar...to Mette, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

“Hello! I’m Matthew, come on in.” Gosh he was absolutely soft-spoken. Mette felt she needed to speak louder than her usual volume just to make up for it.

“Hi!” She took his outstretched hand and shook it with her usual energy. “I’m Margaret, but call me Mette!” She greeted Luka’s sister too - Erika - who accepted the kisses on her cheek with a suspicious little stare, as if she was sussing Mette out. After a moment of silence (they all seemed the silent type, Mette couldn’t really stand it anymore. “So you’re Luka’s cousin huh? I wanted to leave you alone and bug one of my doctors, but Luka wanted to keep me around so…”

_*smack*_

The little slap to the back of the head didn’t really hurt as much as Mette pretended it did, but it was so funny so see Matthew the doctor’s eyes widen in worry.

“She’s a speed skater. Hit her head a few too many times, needs a bit of slapping back to reality occasionally. She cut her hands on the ice, can you help her out Matthew? Sorry to bother you.”

Matthew shook his head with a little laugh. “No worries at all.” He already had a few specialized first-aid kits open and ready. The television was on, showing the day’s earlier snowboarding race. Mette had to do a double-take, because for a moment, she thought she saw her current doctor on screen, but then the label on the bottom of the screen showed an American flag, and a different name...

Mette looked over and the recognition came to her. “You’re not a doctor and a snowboarder for the American team as well are you!?” She joked.

Matthew smiled as he walked over to him bed and picked up a fluffy polar bear. “No, that’s my brother, so trust me, I do understand reckless.” Holding up his bear, he announced with a grin. “Patients get to hold Tumajiri for comfort.”

Mette took the cuddly polar bear in quiet disbelief. Was this doctor for real? She looked back at the otherworldly looking sisters and this cousin of theirs and wondered what magic had to run in their family. At least until Matthew interrupted her thoughts with a question as he gently held her hands under the clear running water. “Now how did this happen?”

As she explained, she saw Luka settle comfortably by the window seat with Erika out of the corner of her eye. They were starting some kind of conversation.

“Anneke de Boer pushed you?” He exclaimed in surprise.

“Yeah, I know she’s got a reputation as a badass and speedy ice queen but she’s as silly as they come too. Don’t let the ol’ scar face fool you…” Wait, Mette recognized that look. “...you’re a fan aren’t you?” She teased. It was fun to see him blush.

Matthew blushed slightly and shrugged. “I’m a fan of speed skating in general, and hockey too but that goes without saying. I actually knew who you were when you walked up, it just didn’t seem very polite to not let you introduce yourself. So this was a prank?” Matthew asked as he dabbed some kind of antiseptic on her knuckles.

“Something about ‘growing a spine’ was mentioned.” Luka casually cut in from her seat not too far away.

Oh shit...that’s right, Mette got carried away by actually being able to talk to Luka that she...crapcrapcrapcrap what did Annie mean, grow a spine? She had a spine, where was her brain! She wasn’t usually this dumb, really! And what was she supposed to do? Ask Luka out? Wouldn’t Luka think that was too forward, they just met! She didn’t want her to think she was a jerk! Maybe she’d…

Matthew started wrapping her hands in some light bandages and tugged a bit, making Mette look up with slight discomfort, but then she saw him give her a wink.

What was this? A wink? Was he hitting on her? She tensed up when he leaned over, but he stopped before getting too close. In the softest of voices, that Mette could barely hear, he whispered. “Just go ahead and ask her out to coffee.” One last tug. “There, that’s done.” He said in a normal voice, well, normal for him. “Take these with you, they’re breathable so you can wear these under your gloves during training, but otherwise try to leave your hands uncovered as much as possible. Unfortunately, it’ll probably start itching next week when you’re in the thick of things. I can’t do much about that, but here’s some salve if it gets too distracting.” He gave her some special bandages a small tub and one last plain box with a cute little flourish. “And here! For being a good patient.”

Mette opened it and stared blankly at the pale brown candy.

“Maple syrup candy!” Matthew exclaimed.

Mette couldn’t really believe it as she gaped at him. Between the candy and the bear, this guy was too adorable. “Are you a pediatrician…?” She had to ask.

“Why does everyone keep asking me that?” Matthew responded in all seriousness.

Luka decided to leave her window at this point. “Because you’re a natural. You calm down the most childlike and energetic of people... you’ve had the practice. Thanks Matthew. Get some sleep, you’ll have a busy day tomorrow.”

Matthew shrugged. “Yeah I know but, I’m just excited you know, it’s my first Olympics and all. And...” He looked at Mette for a moment then looked away. “Good night!” He waved.

  
Oh this was too ridiculous, and now that she thought about it, these were cuts that she could have fixed herself and didn’t require a doctor, but Matthew was so nice and had given her the extra bandages and all for free. “Matthew, will you be on call for the Canadian speed skating team by chance? Will I see you at the races?”

“I’m actually going to be kept quite busy with the ice hockey team, but if I get a free moment, I’ll come watch. Wouldn’t miss it for the world if I had the choice! Good luck!”

“Thanks!’ Thinking back to her earlier thoughts of the evening, Mette thought to herself that she would need a bit of that. But somehow, she felt lighter than she’d ever felt before, inspired, blessed, whatever it was. This competition was going to be different, she could feel it.

The cousins hugged briefly, then Mette found herself alone with Luka and Erika outside in a quieter section of the Olympic village under a dark blanket of twinkling stars. They stood there in silence for a little while, gazing at the sky, with their breaths forming a slight mist across their vision. They gazed until their necks ached but it was the odd call of a raven that brought them back to earth.

Somehow the pitch darkness, the quiet and the stars finally calmed Mette down from her previous nervous energy. “I’m sorry that my friend and I interrupted your cool-down earlier. We were checking out the rink and...got a little silly and yeah, what happened was a little dangerous. That had to be pretty annoying, then you had to take me to see your cousin, all this when you probably have to get up really early tomorrow.” She turned to Erika. “Sorry to keep you up so late as well.”

It was kind of funny to see the sisters’ pair of identical purple eyes - dark in this light - widen in surprise at the same time. Erika just rolled her eyes, looked at her sister and said “Just ask her out already, she’s as smooth as a troll ballerina and obviously interested.” After which she trudged off quickly, muttering something about the stupid, emotionally hurtful, and time wasting games that people liked to play.

Mette laughed, she had never been called a troll ballerina before! Then she actually thought about what had just happened. Wait...what? Did Mette just imagine that? She looked all around her at the clear stars and noted the strange emptiness of sound at this time of night, again that strange raven’s call. Was this even real?

“What are you looking at?!” A now familiar peeved voice called back.

Mette turned back to Luka, who was flushed from the chill night air and in her paleness, was a strange beacon in the darkness. “Just...making sure that I’m not imagining this.” Mette laughed. “Did I just hear your sister right? So if I asked you out right now, would you be open to that?”

“No.”

It suddenly felt about fifty times colder than it had just a moment ago. The heaviness came back and the world came crashing down.

“You idiot.” Luka grumbled, smacking a hand over her own eyes. “That's not what I...I’m not the best at this...what I mean is, obviously not right now. We’re in the middle of what is supposed to be one of the biggest competitions of our careers. We’re standing out in the middle of the Canadian portion of the village at stupid o’ clock in the morning. I’m too tired to think about going on a date with you right NOW. If we’re both going to bring home gold medals, our minds can’t be on anything else. But once we’re done with our part of the competition, we’ll have time then. Just not now.”

Oh...well then. Mette recovered with what must have been a shining smile because Luka  looked confused, and like she wanted to shield her eyes a little. “But...I mean we both need to eat right?” Mette answered. “It’s not training day and night. How about we...have lunch together tomorrow?”

Luka sighed, “Gold, Margaret Køhler. I’ve seen you skate before. You can win it. But you need to focus. And so do I. I can’t be my best on the ice if I’m thinking about you, and I can’t be the best person I could be with you, if I’m thinking about winning. I’m not going to deny that there is some...kind of connection here, despite the oddness of all this, but I can read the signs. All I’m doing is asking you to wait a few weeks. If you still want that date then,” She shrugged. “Let’s do it, but I don’t want you thinking back on this in a month’s time and blaming either me or yourself if you don’t do as well as you could because of today.”

Now, tomorrow, a few weeks? Mette smiled, it was a yes after all right? “I’ll hold you to that. But you know, no matter what happens. After today, I’m already a winner.”

It was a happy and lonely trudge back to the Danish portion of the village but with every step, Mette was practically flying higher and higher again, even lighter than before - lighter even, than when she raced. She finally thought she saw that strange raven flying overhead and thought to herself ‘you just wait, I’ll be flying like you soon, faster even.’

  
A different sort awareness had settled over her and when she returned to her room, and eventually crashed into bed, she knew that life would never be the same. Mette couldn’t really help herself, she pulled out her phone and opened her contacts’ list to to grin at the fact that Luka’s name and number was in there. Eventually, she fell asleep and dreamed happy little dreams, not quite of this world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made Matthew Luka and Erika's cousin mostly because I was excited about a recent archaeological find in the present-day Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador of a potential second Viking settlement in the area. [Read about it on National Geographic! :D ](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/03/160331-viking-discovery-north-america-canada-archaeology/). Also, I never quite got how of all people, America and Canada were supposed to be related to Finland, given the Vinland link, but oh well. It's kind of fun and cute that way too.
> 
> It's probably not safe for any speed skater to get onto a rink that's been torn up by figure skating considering the different conditions they require, so please imagine that Anneke and Margaret are just really really good skaters so they can navigate around that while zipping around and being silly.
> 
> In this universe, Margaret doesn't mention it, but she's probably world number 4 - not bad at all, world number 2 would be female South Korea and a Canadian is third. The women's speed skating rankings aren't as dominated by the Dutch as much as the men's seem to be, especially out of the long-track category.
> 
> Finally - this fic took me by surprise, I hadn't planned to write it, but the story idea wouldn't go away once I read the prompt. Hope it's enjoyable! Have a good day!


	2. Journeys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mette contemplates the past, present and future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's a bit more like the Mette and Annie buddy show as Mette tries to keep her promise to give Luka space until the competitions are over.

Every Olympics was special. Mette remembered her first Olympics at the age of seventeen (where had the years gone?), marching with the rest of her fellow athletes, dressed in red and white. She remembered being somewhere in the middle of the Danish group, the flag bearer was far in front. Even through all the rehearsing, no one told her that just walking around in a long circle around the stadium would feel akin to racing around the rink. It wasn’t the speed of course, it was that surging feeling of excitement and anticipation, her mind struggling to comprehend that she was one of the people who had brought all these other people from around the world together and united them for this brief moment in time. The emotion excited yet humbled her as she waved to them, gratefully, and then she spent the rest of the time struggling with the worms in her stomach because she didn’t want to let anyone down.

She and Annie both were such newbies then, it was kind of embarrassing. Annie however, was gifted - she had brought home a bronze medal on her first outing. A far cry from now, where she had pretty much stayed undefeated since their second Olympics. But the first? That was a different time, Annie and Agus were still together then, and her best friend wasn’t quite as...bored. She wished there was a better word for it, but being at the top was a truly lonely place in a way. As for Mette, she remembered being on an unbeatable high, it was amazing that she had qualified for the national team in the first place. She had met so many people, young and old, newbies like her, or veterans who had valuable experience to share. As she continued with her professional career she was grateful to this community - they kept her grounded, they were the ones who could understand her when she felt otherwise, different from the other people her age. Even though her second Olympics was the one where she had made a name for herself, Mette’s first had always been her favorite.

Somehow, despite being surrounded by fellow athletes, Mette never imaged that she’d fall in love at the Olympics. It was for all the reasons that Luka had given her - gold, focus, the dedication to the sport. Even people who had other genuine concerns in their lives - exams, new jobs, spouses, children...they put it on hold for the competition. If anyone had asked Mette before meeting Luka, she would have thought she’d do the same until she retired.

As was usual in life, reality was nothing like expectation.

“So...that’s what she said, it’s not really no, it’s more like yes, but later, which pretty much means yes!” Mette and Annie were having their dinner together, in picnic form, sitting on the floor in Mette’s room. Her assigned roommate had pulled out of the team due to a serious injury, leaving her with a single room. Something that Annie, surprisingly, didn’t actually have, but with the way people tended to let loose in the Olympic village, Annie's own roommate was hardly ever there either.

Though Luka had said that she didn’t want to even be distracted by Mette while she was deep in competition (and thus avoid sharing meals), Mette understood. She and Annie used to ignore each other right before major competitions as well, but had pretty much given up that practice by now. They found out that it didn’t really affect them, nothing changed the fact that they were childhood buddies, and ignoring each other just removed an additional support piece that they very much needed while tensions and stress were as high as they were.

Annie looked thoughtful for a moment. “It’s a yes.” She agreed. “Good for you, but honestly, you made her introduce you to her family before you had the courage to ask?”

“It wasn’t her whole family! Just her sister and her cousin - there’s something not quite real about them Annie! I kept hoping that you were still with me so I knew I didn’t dream the whole thing up! But...I’m so excited! I feel...reborn.”

Annie chuckled and shook her head. “Okay Reborn, so is this a blanket ban on seeing her until you’re both done competing? Or will you be able to see her perform to that music you’re so enraptured by that it’s been screaming at us all evening?”

“It’s not screaming Annie! It’s great!”

Because Mette couldn’t actually be with Luka, she had responded by listening to Wardruna...almost every moment of the day. It was actually feeding into her competitive spirit, and helping her think clearer.

“Not screaming, you’re right. It has however, been the same music that’s been playing for the last two hours.” She leaned back against the mattress.

“Hah! And YOU thought this was some strange sneaky scheme of mine to win! I don’t know how your mind works sometimes! Here give me that, I’ll put it into the trash…”

Annie shrugged. “Sorry for that…”

Mette felt a familiar contradictory feeling - a feeling of burning competitiveness wrapped in sympathy and concern. But she felt that it would be a good thing, oddly, for her friend to lose at least once in these years. Give her something to fight for again. Perhaps that was just what she told herself as she aimed to do exactly that. But Annie didn’t let her dwell for too long, as she pulled out her tablet and started well, looking at it, which was odd for Annie. Annie hated phones and tablets over food when she expected people to catch up with each other face-to-face.

“Annie what are you doing?”

“Stalking your crush.”

“WHAT?! Hey!” Mette made a grab for the tablet, but Annie managed to hold it out of the way, with another hand on Mette’s face.

“Don’t tell me you haven’t already done this, I’m just doing homework so I can actually ask you relevant questions, now let’s see.”

“I haven’t! It’s lame isn’t it?” Mette objected...okay so she was halfway lying, she wasn’t sure why. She Googled Luka’s name but stopped short of tapping on her Wikipedia entry because, well, Luka struck her as the type who wouldn’t like that. And wouldn’t it be better to find this all out from Luka directly?

“Hmm, she’s twenty-three, not that much younger than us. I was actually hoping I could tease you for cradle robbing.”

“Hah! No! That’s YOU!” Mette shot back triumphantly.

Annie let out a quiet whistle. “Quite the technical expert, your woman and...hmm served in the military as well. Well, you do like them a little hard core, and-”

“GIVE ME THAT!” She finally managed to yank the tablet out of Annie’s hand and closed the browser. “I want to find all this out by you know...talking to her. And she’s Norwegian, so I’m not surprised about her being ex-military. They conscript both men and women there.”

“Nineteen months, as per required by law, she’s in the Navy, and still a reser-”

“Annie SHUT UP!”

“Which would explain why you haven’t met her until now. She wasn't really the best before, then she took a break from the sport in favor of military service and missed the last winter Olympics. Though figure skaters also have the Summer Olympics, and all their other competitions, so she’s been fairly active since then, and made up for the lost time. Quite impressive, building herself up to World Number Two with a break in the middle of her career.”

Mette’s jaw dropped. “Well...I knew she was amazing but...shit.”

“Hey don’t look like that, she likes you, or at least is open to you, otherwise she wouldn’t have given you that speech about going on a date once she can actually give you her full attention.” Annie smiled then, rather unexpectedly. “You know, I don’t know if this is going to be the most amusing thing I’m ever going to see, or the most annoying thing I’m going to see - you in love.”

Anyone else would have misunderstood and  judged the words, but Mette knew Annie and could tell from the fond smirk on her face that this was Annie’s way of sharing her excitement.

“Come watch her with me. It won’t take long and we can ask one of our figure-skating buddies to let us in. If I was meant to stay away completely, I can blame it on having to accompany you.”

Her best friend shook her head in amusement. “Yes, because I’m a fan of figure-skating.” She responded dryly. “That’s not going to work Mette, if you get caught just tell her the truth and say that she never said you couldn’t watch, you just can’t go on a date yet.”

“Fine! Watch with me anyway! I’d like it if my best friend and future wife could meet. It would also be good for your figure skating team to get some support from the speed skaters. I always feel a little sorry for them, they’ve chosen the sport between the two that gets less attention and glory, especially amongst you Dutchies. It’s kind of weird Shouldn’t you guys be as good at figure skating as you are at speed skating?”

Annie shrugged. “Not really my job to worry about that, though you do have a point. If we have the capability we shouldn’t shy from it...I guess I will go to support our figure skaters. See if more of us can go too. You however, are being a bit mean don’t you think? Getting your countrymen to let you in just so you can support a Norwegian? And you may want to be careful about the whole ‘wife’ business, it sounds kind of premature to me.”

Mette had to blush. “Yeah, I don’t want to scare her off. And as for the figure skaters, well there’s no saying that I can’t support both?” After a moment’s pause, she added. “It’s funny I mean. This is our third Olympics. I can’t believe it, where did the time go? And really, it took me this long to pay attention to other sports to meet Luka?”

Annie only sighed in agreement about the time flying by faster than expected as she stood up to get more water for both of them. “As for meeting Luka, well, she did miss the last one. Even if she hadn’t would you have noticed? Besides, not every great athlete makes it to the Olympics,” She shrugged. “How many speed skating rivals or athletes have we observed and seen through the years who just decided it wasn’t for them? Or were wiped out by some terrible injury before they could make it here? I don’t envy the figure skaters at her level, going up against places like Russia that industrializes the production of their athletes, and in her case, with a forced break in between.” She shook her head as she sat back down. “Mette, I vaguely remember our last Olympics, with exception to the races and the medals. I didn’t have time or energy for anything else and neither did you.”

Mette didn’t really want to go into detail on that. Their last Olympics was the most successful for both of them but it was also at a low point in their lives, further exacerbated by their trying to avoid each other for the sake of winning. Mette was fighting with her Swedish cousin over … what now felt like petty family issues that shouldn’t have taken up so much time, especially in light of how well they got along now. She was also winning, but it rankled to not be winning as much as she wanted to. Speaking of winning, Annie had been taking every single contest and breaking records before those Olympics and had not yet learned how to handle the pressure of being that good. It all happened around the time that Agus decided that he couldn’t be in a relationship where his partner loved a sport more than him. Twenty-one and twenty-five felt like eons apart in that respect. They had both gained maturity over the years to help them manage the lives they had chosen for themselves.  “Well, nothing like the present, yeah? Get prepared to be amazed Annie, then you’ll never make fun of my music choices again!”

 Her best friend chuckled and rolled her eyes. “Whatever, Reborn. I’m never going to stop making fun of you.”

 

* * *

 

When it came down to it, Mette barely made it to the ladies’ figure skating short program, but at least she was there. Annie couldn’t spare the time, and Luka probably didn’t care or notice, but Mette did manage to see her program (and the program of two of the Danes who went before her) and had to leave right after they announced the scores. Luka qualified for the free skating program, but no one really doubted that. Luka was...amazing of course. Mette still had no idea how figure skaters seemed to defy all the laws of physics, but Luka’s programs were especially fantastical. She wasn’t using the program that Mette had accidentally walked in on, so she was likely saving that for the big show - the free skating program.

What Mette was grateful for, was that she managed to recruit Erika to help her leave a bouquet of flowers in Luka’s room the day before the program - Luka said they weren’t going on a date yet, not that Mette couldn’t wish her good luck with a bouquet of lucky white heather. Thank goodness for Annie being mad about flowers! When she had first asked Annie for help with the idea, she was afraid she’d be stuck with tulips, which were lovely, but really weren’t the flowers she had in mind. Of course, she needed to buy the flowers off Annie. Whatever business Annie went into after the skating career was over was going to make her even more wealthy many times over, because she could find a supplier and sell anything, whenever she needed to. It was amazing, really. Thankfully, Annie gave her the buddy price for her last-minute request (but really, how had Annie managed to get her heather in the middle of winter overseas?).

She turned to Annie again for the second bouquet, also of heather, but this time mixed with white and purple.

“‘ _Good luck, I adore you_.’” Annie commented with a raised eyebrow when she received the order. “I never expected floriography from you.” She smirked.

“Flower geek.” Mette shot back, a little embarrassed herself but more nervous about the fact that she hadn’t gotten any kind of response or heard a word from Luka since well, the day they had met. She had sent some encouraging messages, but didn’t receive any sort of response.  

“She asked you to wait until the competition was over. If you still don’t get anything after that, then maybe you should worry.” Annie added with a little sympathy tinged with amusement.

“Easy for you to smirk at me, who’s ever made you wait recently?” Mette grumbled, only half meaning it.

Annie sighed and rolled her eyes. “You’re the one who came breaking down my door and yelling at me that you were in love. That’s fairly different from what I’ve wanted recently. And I know why you’re complaining but come on...you know why we’re all here. A few days of silence in the height of competition shouldn’t surprise you."

Mette looked out the hotel window curiously at the grey winter sky. Annie did have a point. Her personal comfort over waiting had turned into nervousness the longer the silence continued. Silence that she wasn't used to, but then again, Luka and her family seemed like the type to save their words. What did she know about Luka after all? Mostly nothing, it was natural to feel anxious from time to time. But why wasn't she so dedicated to this silence rule that everyone else seemed comfortable with? She sometimes felt alone in being able to separate her competitiveness from the rest of her life. Maybe it was because she went into speed skating knowing that there were two things she really wanted out of life - to be a champion in her youth, and to build worlds after her retirement. She had maybe three to five more years to go in the sport and she would give it her all. After that, she wanted to write. She had a portfolio of children's’ and young adult novels hidden in her desk and laptop, where she created when she felt the muse...which honestly wasn’t as often as she would like, but still, it was a plan for after. Something that many of her fellow professionals didn’t share, oddly enough. It was probably why she described what she felt looking at Luka as ‘love’, rather than anything else despite how little she knew about the other woman. Luka was a storyteller and an athlete, a child of ice and winter, a muse, everything that Mette had ever dreamed of, but never even thought to imagine could be personified in a person. And even if Luka decided that Mette was not the same for her, she would always have her admiration.

That thought gave her comfort and Mette relaxed. She would try her damnedest, and of course Luka had the right to say no, but it wouldn’t change anything for Mette. It wasn’t up to her. It was oddly terrifying and calming at the same time.

“You still with me?” Annie’s voice broke her out of her reverie. 

“Yeah,” Mette laughed. “You’re right. I should know better. So you don’t think the silent treatment may be because she thinks I missed her program? It’s just because she’s busy?”

Annie chuckled. “I don’t know genius, if you feel so bad about it, don’t miss the next program. You can ask her what she thinks once our races are over and I’ve beaten you in a few weeks’ time.”

Mette grabbed a pillow and threw it at her as hard as she could.

 

* * *

 

Thankfully by the time Luka’s free skating program was to happen, Mette’s schedule opened up. Training, as per usual, had its good days and bad; sometimes the body just clicked, most times it didn't quite get there but had been honed enough to perform well regardless. Her trouble had always been in keeping her focus, thus she preferred the adrenaline of the short-track race to long-track, which was Annie's specialty (they were a little more evenly matched in short track, but Annie, annoyingly, still tended to win). So there she was, eagerly sitting in her seat, her training was hitting slightly less intense levels to allow her body to heal in time to compete. Still, Mette absently rubbed her leg muscles as she waiting for the commotion to die down and for the programs to begin.

Annie arrived halfway through Irina Braginskaya’s intimidatingly beautiful program and Mette was grateful for the company. Watching Irina made Mette nervous for Luka.

“So this would be your lady’s main competitor.” Annie observed, an eyebrow raised in awe of Braginskaya’s program as her scores were announced.

“She _is_ the world number one.” Mette whispered back with bite. “But she’s close to retirement age, so her program is really pretty, but the technical score is...not as high as I thought it would be?" She didn't have to mention something they were keenly aware of - the body slowed down, whether you liked it or not. It was one of life's irritating ironies that when you had the best strength and physicality, you weren't skilled enough, and when you were skilled enough, you had broken so many bones, sliced up so many muscles and aged enough that you were still lacking. "Anyway, you didn’t see the part of Luka’s program that I did. But you soon will.”

“Technical score?” Annie raised an eyebrow at her. “A few days of binge watching figure skaters has made you an expert now has it?” She responded with a sarcastic smile.

Mette frowned back but she knew that her friend had a point - she knew nothing, really. She could never really figure out how these judges made up their scores. Perfect or reality-defying programs were voted down on the pickiest of reasons while awkward looking programs were sometimes lauded. It made no sense to her, but it would be important to Luka so she endeavored to learn. “Hey! Let me calm my nerves okay?”

Annie nodded and sat down next to her, the lack of rebuttal an apology of sorts. Besides, they were both tired.

A few other skaters came and went. Somewhere between one of the Dutch skaters, Mette felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see, “Matthew! Erika!” She greeted with an excited whisper, while Annie turned curiously.

“I thought that was you,” Matthew greeted with a smile. “I’m glad we came for a closer look.”

Introductions were made and Mette noticed Annie giving Matthew a look as if she was trying to place him from somewhere. Before Mette could lean over and tell her he basically had a famous American brother, her friend blurt out, “Matthew Williams?”

The good doctor widened his eyes in surprise before recovering with a nervous smile. “Oh...it’s very kind of you to remember me.”

Annie meanwhile, looked at him like he had grown an extra head. “Of course I remember you. You Canadians are a little funny with the things you consider memorable or not.”

“Care to fill me in?” Mette decided to add. It was a little strange to be sitting in-between them during this exchange.

Annie looked at her pointedly. “World Speed Skating Championships, five years ago?”

“It’s...okay, really.” Matthew tried to interject.  

Mette scrunched up her face. She didn’t really like thinking back to that one, it hadn't been pleasant. Her mind immediately brought her to why it was unpleasant, because there was nothing quite like going through a stressful period in your life and then having to question your dedication to your sport, the one thing you had chosen above all else, because of a gruesome accident taking out a talented...wait…”OH MY GOD!”

It hadn’t been a case of seeing Alfred Jones’ face from somewhere and thinking it looked familiar when she met Matthew. She had actually MET Matthew before, albeit for a very brief period of time. Five years ago, just as Annie had said. And hadn’t Luka told her that Matthew used to be a speed skater? Mette had assumed it was more of a hobby for him. She remembered feeling sick, watching all that blood congealing on the ice as the medical teams rushed Matthew Williams away. The only way she continued was to remove the image from her mind as much as possible - that wouldn’t happen to her, she forced herself to forget it, but she never really could. Accidents could happen at any time, to any one of them. She looked at her kind doctor again and tried to process it all, even as he seemed to be getting more and more uncomfortable.

Because Matthew Williams hadn’t been just some Canadian speed skater. He was damned good, the Dutch team had hated him for no other reason than he was beating their guys so easily, even in long track, where they were traditionally so strong (while the Canadians had danced cute little dances of victorious joy). And just like that, one short-track race and an accident later, and he was never seen again.

Yes, Mette remembered him now. She couldn’t help it, she felt so elated and relieved, the next thing she knew, she was giving Matthew Williams the biggest bear hug she could muster and laughing her head off. “Oh my God! Tough guy!! Look at you! You’re alive and...and you...you’re the sweetest doctor alive! Thank Odin!” She released him and looked at his bewildered face. “You should totally write a book!”

“What?”

Erika, at this point, leaned in with a frown and put an end to it all. “Can you two just stop? Can’t you see that my cousin is pretty uncomfortable right now?” 

“It’s okay Erika,” Matthew shrugged. “I didn’t expect anyone to remember me really, and outside of Canada, no one really has? But if they will I should get used to it.” He turned back to Mette. “It’s nice of you to um, be excited and I don’t know if I’m the sweetest Doctor alive,” he chuckled, “but I’m glad that you’re feeling better. Anyway, the Zamboni’s been done for a while and I think Luka’s up next.”

Mette looked back to the ice and realized that Matthew was right. Before she could say anything else to counter his absolutely awkward way of changing the conversation, Luka skated out to the center of the ice and took her starting pose, arms raised in the air like a ballerina with a gentle arch on her back and a foot behind, toe on the ice. She was dressed in a costume  of deep blue with green, fading almost into black, evocative of the Northern Lights, nude stockings covered her legs and skates. Her hair was tied back severely with a side parting, her trademark cross-barrette was clipped to the side of her head and her makeup emphasized her paleness. Her lips were painted with a nude color, makeup and contours accentuated features of her face to almost something beyond human, giving her an otherwise eerie and otherworldly look. It was a risk, everything that Luka had ever done - while most figure skaters still planned programs to classical music or looked as conventionally attractive as possible in their costume, Luka picked non-traditional choices, or maybe very traditional - folk instrumentals that had a distinctive Norwegian flair. Mette has seen all the old videos she could find - there was a difference between Luka’s programs pre and post her conscription-enforced break. Before, she stuck to more traditional programs, classical music. After, she embraced the new rulings that allowed lyrical music and simply brought everyone to ancient Norway. Mette wanted to talk to her about that, what was the catalyst for her to change her style? What did she think of all these restrictive rules in her sport? Right now though, she was ready to let Luka take her on a journey to another place and time.

A hush fell over the audience as the music began with the sound of birds chirping. When the ancient instruments started playing, and the powerful vocals sang, Luka began to dance. She started with twists and turns, while circling the rink backwards, her legs pumping to give her momentum. When the women started to sing the chorus, Luka made her first series of jumps - triple lutz, with a double toe. The music continued to pick up its pace, as Luka spun around in powerful circles, then glided across the ice with a leg held up beside her, all this time her facial expressions told a story of a journey beginning, adversaries to defeat and the continuing trudge of life, emphasized with her odd makeup. Amazingly, as the music and its percussions rose and came stronger, so did Luka’s program - the parts that Mette had seen a teasing glimpse of. Twisting and turning in fluid dance steps to the bouncing beat of the instruments and whispered lyrics, Luka still oddly decreased her speed, or at least seemed to, which made her continued execution of complicated jumps look all the more impossibly perfect. Mette was not an expert, but thanks to her obsessive figure skating watching over the past few days, knew the terms, vaguely - triple axel, double toe, cantilever rising to an Ina Baur, the fan spiral. But Mette didn’t really pay much attention to these because she was simply mesmerized by what she saw - Luka’s program was seamless, from one exciting moment to graceful glide, to the next heart-stopping impossibility.

Luka was grinning now, eyes open wide - an expression not glimpsed at all during her practice, but was part of the show. The spirit she embodied was rushing into the heart of a battle, beserk but controlled, she was building up to something and Mette was shaking her head, dizzy with expectation and worry - what was she going to do? Hoping she wouldn’t hurt herself.

Luka jumped again, and Mette expected the usual triple axel, except that time seemed to stop as Luka spun in the air - one, two, three...FOUR?! Times before landing (a little tight? WELL NO WONDER) and pulling off two more toe loops. The rink erupted with applause as the audience stood up to recognize what Luka had just done. Women didn’t really do quad axels, that much Mette knew, and even when the men started doing it, no one was sure if they should encourage it for the danger it posed. As for women? Well, only one woman in figure skating history had ever pulled off a quad, and she had been fifteen, and she never did it again. Now there were two.

Gliding, Luka was still in her show, her eyes and face showed an expression that was far away in another place. The music changed, dropping the usual chorus to the finishing vocals calling out their hymns, and here, Luka bent backwards again, and spun on one bent leg, her hand held one blade while the other arched ahead. As before she spun at such speed that Mette found her vision shift and see before her again, a pale tree reaching to the cosmos.

The music faded as Luka slowed, returning to herself, to the real world. Mette sat back to realize the hard seat she was sitting on and how out of breath she was. She noticed another odd thing - the silence. No one made a sound. A moment later, the roar was deafening. Norwegian flags were waved by ecstatic fans and even the rest had to acknowledge what had just happened. The program had been wonderful, a success, but the upset - trailblazing female figure skaters rarely did well with the scores, Mette could never understand why. France’s Surya Bonaly was the only person ever in figure skating history to do a backflip on the ice with a one foot landing. She never got the credit she deserved. Miki Ahno was the only other woman before Luka who had accomplished the quad axel - she fared better, but her country didn’t care just because she had a child out of wedlock. So what about Luka?

It didn’t matter if the judges found some odd complaint, as far as Mette was concerned, Luka was the winner. She could never tell how these judgments went - give her a race any day, where the victor was the one who crossed the line first. But there had been so many figure skating programs she had seen where the person she thought would win...didn’t.

As Luka waved to the crowd and skated to exit the rink, Annie frowned looked to Mette. “She’s going to win right?”

Mette shook her head out of her amazement and looked back with a confused glance. “I don’t know? I can't actually figure out how they judge these yet...?”

It was Erika who answered. “It may be close. Irina gave a perfect traditional show, Luka pushed a lot of barriers and while her program was complicated, there were minor mistakes. But hopefully even the judges won’t ignore the quad.”

Matthew sighed, his eyes oddly focused. “So you’d hope. Irina scored 150, exactly. That’s already the third highest score ever given in women's’ figure skating for the free program.”

They waited nervously for the scores to be announced. On the large screen, Luka could be seen sitting between her coaches, waiting for the announcement.

Mette clenched her fists, even Annie sat rather tensely. Why on earth did this wait feel like forever?!

150.10

Mette jumped off her seat with a victory holler as the crowd erupted with cheers. It should have been higher, or so Mette thought, but who knew what these picky figure skating bastards looked out for when they judged? No, that couldn’t be her attitude. Hells, outsiders probably looked at a speed skating race and thought they were picky bastards too, over different things. Mette looked at Luka, to see how the other woman was taking the news. Luka was strangely stone faced, staring out into nothing at the ice, or maybe it was the slightly inhuman makeup that was making it difficult to tell.

“Luka, just stand up and wave and get out of there already.” Erika huffed, but Mette could see the smile on her face, while Matthew was grinning outright and clapping with excitement. But Luka was the person she wanted to see now. Luka it seemed, had finally snapped out of her previous inactivity and was standing up, waving at the crowd with a smile.

Mette wanted to run there and see Luka right then, but with the crowd around, knew she wasn’t going to get anywhere. Of course, if she stayed with Erika and Matthew, she’d see Luka eventually. Yes, that was a good plan. And Annie always said that Mette didn’t know the meaning of subtlety. Ha!

“When can we see her?!” Mette demanded in excitement.

Matthew laughed while Erika shook her head.

“Well, soon for the medals ceremony.” He answered. “Solo one on one talk? I expect she’ll be pretty busy but,” He shrugged. “She’s not going anywhere until the games are done.” Before anyone could say anything, Matthew’s phone beeped and he pulled it out. “But I need to go somewhere now. Hockey players.” He said with a chuckle. “I’ll likely be seeing you around Mette, and Anneke,” He shook Anneke’s hand earnestly. “It was nice meeting you again.” Mette saw Annie start to smile back, but Matthew didn’t stay around long enough to see it. He disappeared as quickly as a ghost, Annie’s gaze following him in bewilderment.

"That was weird.” She muttered as she turned back.

But Mette was concerned about more pressing things right now. “Hey Erika,” She whispered.

“Why are you whispering so loud? Everyone can hear you.”

She ignored Annie’s muffled laughter behind her. “ I’m not good at whispering! Do.you think Luka would mind if I surprised her in person?”

“Yes.”

Mette resisted that deflating feeling she felt and barreled on, following her instincts. “Do you think she’d mind if I could see her in person after this, but not as a surprise?”

Erika smiled slightly. “No, that I think, would be okay.”

“Great!” Mette pulled out her phone. “Help sneak me in? Wait! I didn’t mean sneak, I meant, where can I find her?”

"Send her a message, then meet me at nine tonight in front of the hotel."

Mette gleefully tapped the message, then hesitated before sending it. "So...if I don't get a response, does that mean I shouldn't meet you?"

Erika had an expression she couldn't read as she replied. "No, meet me anyway."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit short, and it looks like this will be more than 2 chapters, but I wanted to post and make progress rather than not. Coming up next, speed skating.

**Author's Note:**

> I made Matthew Luka and Erika's cousin mostly because I was excited about a recent archaeological find in the present-day Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador of a potential second Viking settlement in the area. [Read about it on National Geographic! :D ](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/03/160331-viking-discovery-north-america-canada-archaeology/). Also, I never quite got how of all people, America and Canada were supposed to be related to Finland, given the Vinland link, but oh well. It's kind of fun and cute that way too.
> 
> It's probably not safe for any speed skater to get onto a rink that's been torn up by figure skating considering the different conditions they require, so please imagine that Anneke and Margaret are just really really good skaters so they can navigate around that while zipping around and being silly.
> 
> In this universe, Margaret doesn't mention it, but she's probably world number 4 - not bad at all, world number 2 would be female South Korea and a Canadian is third. The women's speed skating rankings aren't as dominated by the Dutch as much as the men's seem to be, especially out of the long-track category.
> 
> Finally - this fic took me by surprise, I hadn't planned to write it, but the story idea wouldn't go away once I read the prompt. Hope it's enjoyable! Have a good day!


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